Ant (Powder Game element)
Ant is a living powder element in Powder Game. It spreads as it falls, and moves back and forth on the ground, possibly to imitate living creatures, which makes it similar to liquids. However, unlike liquids, it remains still in powders, without rising. , making it a living powder.]] Properties *Ant makes tunnels of solid. If it touches a solid (other than torch, fan, or clone), it will become "charged" with that element and make tunnels and other patterns of it. ** Ant may only become charged if it is placed over top of the solid. Any other position, and the ant will simply not react with the solid. *As with all automatic creations of dots on the screen, tunneling will stop if the available dots reach 999 or lower. *Charged ants are unaffected by wind but are affected by drag and exploding C-4. *Powders don't sink when placed on top of ants, as seen in the animation on the above left. *Ants are destroyed by birds. *Players and fighters can walk on ant due to its state of matter. Movement *Ant is mysterious. Its movement is almost impossible to be studied, even though it is an old element. Even if its material has been destroyed (like C-4 when it explodes), ant may continue making tunnels. The only elements ant can become charged with are C-4, ice, vine, wood, metal, glass, fuse, and pump. *Nine types of movement have been found so far: # If ant is traveling on a 1-pixel thick cord of one stationary solid, it will move one or two pixels per frame. Every frame, the ant moves "on top" of one pixel of the stationary solid ©. Also, the ant places the pixel of the stationary solid it was on before (A) onto the one directly after that (B). Occasionally, and apparently randomly, the ant moves into an intermediate state between building states on A and C, instead landing on B, leaving a blank on A and the ant on B, and on the next frame, the ant will be on C, 2 dots on B, and nothing on A. The path of ant movement #1 can turn 90 degrees. The path, for safety, should always leave a 2-pixel or more gap with itself such that the stack on on point B will not interfere with the movement at all. When this path ends, the ant usually changes to movement #3, 4, or 5. This path can also traverse diagonally aligned paths, but only for one pixel. It also can occur on slightly uneven surfaces due to this trait. Movement #1 is the only known one used in uploads. When in movement #1, the ant will always go counterclockwise if given the choice. If not, it will go straight, and if neither, it will move to the last possibility. # Ant moving on a diagonal, without destroying it. Movement #2 is contained within several other movements, such as movements #3, 4, and 5, and can also be achieved by dropping ant on a 1-pixel wide diagonal. In movement #2, ant moves diagonally one frame per second. If moving from movement #1, it will still always try to move counterclockwise. # The most commonly known pattern seen, movement #3 seems to resemble the growth of crystals in the real world, as it makes pointed diagonal stripes along the screen. If contacting an even surface of its own element, the ant will backtrack to the base of its diagonal (via movement #2) and build the diagonal again farther out. It will do so until it cannot go out any further, or it reaches the end of the even surface, upon which it switches to movement #1 on this even surface. # Most often occurring at the end of movement #1, movement #4 is a building of a 45-45-90 degree triangle. The ant first builds a short diagonal at 45 degrees to the straight line from where it came. Then it builds a diagonal between the diagonal it just built and the straight line. Shuttling back and forth on the second diagonal, it builds the first diagonal, demolishes the second diagonal while simultaneously constructing another, builds on the straight line, the shuttles back on the new second diagonal and repeats the process, thereby creating a triangle. If this triangle meets a straight line it will change to movement #1 immediately. # This movement is simply movement #4 with some changes--First, the ant shuttles on a diagonal that builds on two parallel diagonals, thus creating a eternally extending rectangle instead of a triangle. This happens more often than most might think. If the ant in movement #5 meets a straight line it will change to movement #1 once both ends of the shuttling diagonal are on the line. # This branch on movement #3 is initiated when an ant in movement #3 hits a horizontal/vertical wall of block. The ant circles around every three frames and spirals toward one direction whiles building. This produces a straight line parallel and three pixels away to the block. This can continue indefinitely, unless hitting block or going off the screen. # This movement occurs when, during movement #1, the path leads into a chamber filled with its own element and encased in block. The ant hugs the block and leaves a blank path behind it. This is actually an interesting variation of movement #1, but the ant hugs the block instead of in straight lines.The ant can shift back to movement #1 anytime, simply by leading a cord of the solid that the ant will travel on out of the encasement of block. # The most haphazard and obscure, movement #8 will most likely will not be studied. It normally occurs when multiple ants are moving in an uneven surface, which, along with movement #3, is the most common movement without scaling in. It resembles random and chaotic burrows. This is where ant acts most like Langton's ant, along with movement 3. # This movement can easily be witnessed when ant burrowing through C-4 has its own C-4 exploded. The ant flies outward somewhere while still constructing, leaving curious diagonal markings through the air. This can actually rarely be seen if metal-charged ant has large quantities of thunder passing metal through it during movements #2 or #3. Ant always goes to movements #3 or #6 after the short period of movement #9. *Ants probably move to rules similar to Langton's ant, although one frame is not exactly one step, as shown with the ordered behavior of the other movements compared to movement 8. There are also algorithms about what happens when a charged ant meets another charged ant (both disappear) and when a charged ant meets another element (see below). *It is also known that ant charged with an element will burrow through any other element, except for fan, unless the charged ant can be destroyed, e.g. with torch. This is what charged ant has mostly been used for, e.g. bridges that rest on a solid can have its base demolished by incoming charged ant, making the entire bridge fall. This can also be used to create hidden massages, where when the material falls, it aligns with other things to create a secret message. Movement #1 is always used for this. Because this demolishing has unique movements, it could be classified as a tenth movement. However, this requires the ants to touch multiple substances, so it is set apart from the other 9 movements, which use only one solid for the ant to burrow through. *Ant cannot burrow between two diagonally adjacent blocks. Effects with other elements Category:Powder Game elements